June 23, 2007

Graduate receives life-saving gift

By SUSAN LEMERANDE

Laura James almost missed her high school graduation.

No, she didn't forget the time, oversleep, get stuck in traffic, or run out of gas. She almost died.

In 2001, Laura was diagnosed with leukemia, but thanks to a fast diagnosis and excellent treatment, she went into remission within months. Two years later, however, the outlook wasn't so rosy - the acute myeloid leukemia had returned.

“At one of my regular checkups, the doctor told me it was back,” Laura said. “He said the only thing that would save my life would be a bone marrow transplant, so we began testing my immediate family - no one was a match. As a matter of fact, my brother was a complete opposite!”

The next step was to branch out to extended family but, still, there was no viable match. After that, the doctors look to the bone marrow registry, where kindhearted people sign up to donate the live-saving marrow to those who need it.

“They say you have more of a chance of matching to a complete stranger,” Laura said.

Within a month a match was found, one Laura's City of Hope oncologist called “the best match I've ever seen!”

George Nusser, who lives in Crofton, Md., had joined the registry to become a donor for a favorite teacher, but the initial testing proved he was not a match. Still, he selflessly remained on the list of possible donors for someone else who could benefit from his marrow. And that would be Laura James, a San Jacinto High student who wanted to see her graduation ... and then some.

Laura's infusion of George's bone marrow took place at City of Hope in February 2004. About a month later, her white and red blood cell and hemoglobin counts had increased enough to get her out of the isolation room she'd been in and into a regular hospital room. Altogether, she was at City of Hope for eight weeks, with either her mom Ruthie or dad Steve with her all the time.

While Laura's health improves and she is cancer free, her body is struggling with the intruder it still detects, even now. It could be years before all the side effects from the medications and the transplant itself subside.

“I have osteoporosis because of all the prednisone I had to take and now my left hip has to be replaced. Eventually it'll all be OK,” she said.

Laura and her family were not allowed to know much about the donor at the time of the transplant, just that he was a 40-year-old male from the East Coast. After a year, the parties are allowed to contact one another if they both agree. They did.

“I was glad that he wanted to communicate,” Laura said, “and we talked about seeing each other. One day I told him I was graduating and asked if he could come out.”

Laura's Aunt Becky had accumulated airline miles that she was willing to give to George and his son Corey (who celebrated his 17th birthday in San Jacinto) and the two were at Tiger Stadium to see their new friend graduate from high school. Then they went to parties and Disneyland, their first trip to the Magic Kingdom.

On Tuesday Laura spent the day at Cal State Fullerton for her new-student orientation; on Aug. 15, she'll move into her dorm and begin classes in her political science major. With entertainment law on her mind, Laura can actually dream and plan on anything she wants now, all because of a stranger across the country who gave her the gift of life.